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Gemstones - Earths Gift to the World

Have you ever thought about how gemstones are actually formed? I hadn’t. I’d never really given it much thought. I just oohed and ahhed over the amazing colours and gorgeous jewellery that I’d seen in magazines, boutiques and on celebrities.

Then, I got the wonderful opportunity to work with not only diamonds but amazing coloured gemstones here at Polished Diamonds. Everything I’ve learned since the day I started has really blown my mind and I enjoy every day looking and analysing the amazing diamonds and gemstones.

It takes me back to my school days of learning about the layers of the earth. And how earth’s crust is basically just plates that float on top of its mantle. Thus, creating mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes. In my mind, all of this was an age old story. The majesties of the Southern Alps and the fury of Mount Tongariro and Ruapehu were remarkable landmarks that had been around for centuries. What did they have to do with the amazing jewellery I’d just seen adorning all of the celebrities for the Oscar’s and NZ Music Awards? The answer: everything.

These same “floating plates” that have rubbed together to form mountains and volcanoes are also creating the perfect environment for gemstone formation: pressure, temperature, space and some pretty “special ingredients”. The “special ingredients” or elements that make up the earth’s crust are: Oxygen: 46.60%; Silicon: 27.72%; Aluminium: 8.13%; Iron: 5.00%; Calcium: 3.63%; Magnesium: 2.09%; Boron: 0.0010%; Beryllium: 0.00026%. When these elements are combined with temperature, pressure and a whole lot of time, it creates all sorts of gemstone species. (The rarer the element, the rarer the gem.) But that’s not all! The earth sometimes throws in extra ingredients into our recipe called trace elements to achieve color variants or some distinctive optical phenomenon. For example: The gemstone species corundum is made up of the elements oxygen and aluminium. When you throw in a little titanium and iron, you’ll get a deep blue gem sapphire, but if chromium is added to the mix, you’ll be surprised with a red ruby. How cool is that?! Nature has created something so incredible and complex with no human involvement. I can totally understand how some rare stones are valued at millions of dollars.

This knowledge has truly given me a new appreciation for the gemstone that our team at Polished Diamonds offer to our customers. Each stone that passes my desk has been meticulously hand crafted in nature, and I am in total awe of it all. Even the small inclusions are natures fingerprints and no gemstone is the same. We think that vibrant colour from Sapphire, Ruby and Tanzanite are just as exciting as the colourless majesty of a D-Flawless diamond. We are happy to offer any gemstone to be set into our jewellery designs so speak to one of our team today about amazing coloured gemstones, birthstones and be amazed at how these marvels of nature came to be. Amazing gemstones uniquely sourced just for you.

Hi Dan and team; just an email of appreciation and thanks for the wonderful job you and your team have done. The wedding bands look amazing, not to mention the promise ring that you have so kindly fixed and cleaned also looks amazing. Thank you so much for the time and effort you have put into the rings. We will always cherish the quality of the craftsmanship used to make the engagement and wedding bands. For any other jewellery work you have our confidence and loyalty and look forward to any dealings that we may have in the future.

- Chris R: Auckland

Thanks for the all the work you have done on my various rings. I appreciate they have not been your most lucrative commissions but you have never treated them as such. My thanks are particularly for restoring my grandmothers art deco onyx ring. You clearly discussed the various options and prices, the end result has been absolutely fabulous and the compliments received on the ring are on-going. I have had no trouble in recommending you to anyone for either new, repaired or restored works. Hope to do further business with you in the future. Thanks again. Helen

- Helen Clark

Thanks so much for my gorge anniversary ring, I just love it. I'm having a Friday wine and enjoying the view from my sparkly diamonds :-) lol, thank you for all you help, will definitely be recommending Polished Diamonds but I'm sure my new ring will do all the advertising!